It is a scary experience for a person to feel sick, and wonder what might be wrong with them. Could it be something serious or just something that can be easily treated? When a person experiences symptoms that they have never had before, it is a natural reaction to feel nervous. However, to relieve themselves of that anxiety, people will go see their doctor for an evaluation. You are supposed to be able to trust your physician or nurse practitioner. They are smart, well-educated people. Their careers revolve around keeping their patients healthy, or diagnosing and treating those patients who are not. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

Irreparable Harm At The Hands Of Professionals You Trusted

Sometimes a nervous patient turns to their doctor for a diagnosis, and some reassurance, and unfortunately their doctor or nurse practitioner will miss the diagnosis or give them the wrong diagnosis. Even though the symptoms might fit a certain illness, the doctor or nurse do not always recognize the signs or symptoms and fail to order the appropriate lab work or x-rays. If the diagnosis was missed or incorrect, a patient can experience a delay in treatment, excessive medical costs, irreversible damage, and unfortunately, sometimes even death. Imagine the irreparable harm that occurs if a patient goes to the emergency room with symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath, and they are suffering from a heart attack, yet the medical professionals fail to diagnose it. Every second that the patient’s heart is not getting oxygen, more permanent damage is being done.

It is not only heart attacks that go undiagnosed across the county. Other illnesses such as breast cancer, strokes, lung cancer, depression, meningitis, brain tumors, infections, and hundreds of other medical problems go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed far too often. This is a form of medical malpractice, and patients or their loved ones should not have to suffer as a result of a medical professional’s negligence. Imagine that you are experiencing the symptoms of colon cancer, but unfortunately your doctor attributes your symptoms to something far less serious. Months pass, and you continue to feel worse. Finally, you see another physician who makes the correct diagnosis. If the diagnosis was made earlier, it might not have spread or metastasized, or been less aggressive and more easily treatable. No one should have to be in that situation.

How Is Misdiagnosis Possible?

There are often times where a patient has all of the risk factors for a certain disease, such as having a family history and presence of the breast/ovarian cancer genes, and yet when the patient presents with symptoms, they are still misdiagnosed. It is difficult to comprehend that this really happens, but it does. Sometimes Cat scans or MRIs are improperly read, or maybe a proper medical history is not taken, or often the doctor or nurse practitioner just failed to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Regardless of the reason, patients should not have to have prolonged pain and suffering because of their doctor’s negligence.

You may have read about a recent case where a Massachusetts woman was misdiagnosed with the HIV Virus and spent nine years of her life undergoing the intense treatment for the virus. She took a strong combination of prescription medications that caused her to suffer from chronic fatigue, weight loss, intestinal inflammation, and depression. Not to mention having to live with the stigma that often surrounds such a diagnosis. The woman was awarded 2.5 million dollars in damages to compensate her for the immense physical and mental pain and suffering she went through as a result of the wrong diagnosis.

Legal Trailblazers Who Put Up a Fight

Failure to diagnose cases can be very complicated and require the work of highly experienced Pennsylvania medical negligence lawyers who can handle the intricacies that are involved in these types of cases. Here at the nationally recognized Beasley Firm, our Philadelphia failure to diagnose attorneys understand what it is like when you or a loved one has been injured as a result of a failure to diagnose or a misdiagnosis. Our specialized teams, made up of physicians and nurses, have spent over 60 years working in the hospital setting. We are skilled in areas where other firms may not be, including wrongful death, negligence, and personal injury.

We stand proud as being a nationally known medical negligence law firm where many judges, lawyers, politicians, television personalities, high ranking officials, and doctors have turned to when faced with medical malpractice, hospital malpractice, or a wrongful death. If you or a loved one has suffered as the result of a failure to diagnose a condition or a misdiagnosis, please call one of our experienced Philadelphia personal injury attorneys at the Beasley Firm at (888) 823-5291. Feel free to call us for a no-fee consultation. We will never take a fee unless we win your case. All of the experienced top rated Beasley attorneys have been named Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.

Our attorneys are consistently voted among the best lawyers in Philadelphia.

Disclaimer: The medical malpractice, birth injury, product liability or other personal injury legal information presented at this site should not be construed to be formal legal advice, nor the formation of a lawyer or attorney client relationship. Any results set forth herein are based upon the facts of that particular case and do not represent a promise or guarantee. Please contact us for a consultation on your particular personal injury matter. Although we handle some cases on a nationwide basis, including cerebral palsy lawsuits and wrongful death claims, our Philadelphia law firm is primarily Pennsylvania lawyers, New Jersey lawyers, and Delaware lawyers. We represent clients across Pennsylvania, with an emphasis on Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, Chester, and Lancaster counties. Similarly, in New Jersey we focus on Camden, Burlington, Glouchester, Salem, Mercer, Ocean, and Atlantic Counties. In Delaware, we focus on New Castle and Kent counties.

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